[WATCH] Air strikes kill dozens of Syrian civilians

Dozens of civilians were killed in a series of air and missile strikes on a school district and rebel-held areas in Syria’s Damascus suburbs, a group monitoring the Syrian war said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said unidentified war planes hit the town of Douma, 15 km northeast of the capital, and surface-to-surface missiles fired by the Syrian army also hit the surrounding areas, including Eastern Ghouta.

The heavy bombardment targeted a besieged Syrian rebel stronghold near a school, according to the UK based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Syrian army has said its strikes target insurgents that have launched attacks on government-held areas.

The Observatory, which gathers information from a network of contacts on the ground, said at least 40 mortar bombs fired by insurgents in the eastern suburbs hit Damascus on Sunday, killing at least one child and wounding several.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at 28 civilians killed, adding that figure was likely to rise as many of the wounded were in critical condition.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Observatory, also said air strikes hit the nearby town of Saqba.

“One of the air strikes on Douma hit near a school, killing the school's principal,” Mr Rahman told AFP.

There are reports children were killed in the attack.

An officer from the Douma brand of the Syrian Civil Defence department said the airstrikes were carried out by government forces, Al Jazeera reported.

“At least 35 civilians were killed in the attacks on Douma alone, another 250 have been injured. A school was targeted, in which injured students have been taken to the nearest medical points.”

“In the past three months, these areas have been constantly targeted by rocket attacks and air strikes, not one of those killed was a fighter - all of those killed were civilians,” the officer said.

A video published by opposition group SMO shows people carrying children away from the rubble and a man can be seen walking away from the debris with a small child.

On Saturday, at least eight people were killed after a car bomb loaded with more than 100kg of explosives detonated outside a hospital in a Syrian government controlled area of Homs.